By Kevin Seabrooke

The Battle of Anzio (January 22-May 25, 1944) was aimed at bypassing the German’s daunting Gustav Line in an effort to capture Rome. The amphibious forces under Maj. Gen. John P. Lucas the amphibious landing some 30 miles south of Rome was unopposed. A cautious Lucas chose to consolidate the beachhead instead of advancing. It was a costly decision, for by the time an attack was launched on January 29, the 69,000 Allies were facing 71,500 German troops.

A former U.S. Army officer, Williams spent 25 years collecting the combat experiences of 160 Rangers, compiling a comprehensive history of the unit. Though he has made use of official records and published sources, Williams notes that most of the material for this book has come from letters, personal interviews, and unpublished accounts from the Rangers themselves or from their family members.

In retelling the events of 1944, Williams uses the men’s own words and accounts to “correct a number of errors and misconceptions that have been repeated over the years, including the commonly repeated error that only six Rangers returned from the Battle of Cisterna, all the others being reported either killed or captured.”

Here, for the first time, the story of the Cisterna battle is comprehensively told in chronological order by 46 of the men who fought there.

The Road to Cisterna: Darby’s Rangers and Their Most Consequential Battle in World War II (David Lyle Williams, LSU Press, Baton Rouge, LA, 401 pp., 22 illustrations, 12 maps, Sept. 26, 2025, $44.95 HC)

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